LIGHT-MANTLED SOOTY ALBATROSS. 49 



Phcebetria fusca campbetti Mathews, Birds Austr., Vol. II., pt. m., p. 304, Sept. 20th, 1912: 

 Australian Seas. 



DISTRIBUTION. Southern Australian Seas. One specimen from Hobson's Bay preserved 

 in Melbourne Museum. 



Adult. General colour above and below sooty-brown, slightly darker on the top 

 of the head ; blackish on the lores and above and behind the eyes ; wings and tail 

 blackish -brown ; shafts of the tail-feathers and primaries straw coloured. Short 

 feathers round the eye, interrupted in front, white ; bill black, the groove on the 

 lower mandible long and deep, and filled with a yellow skin. Total length 790 mm. ; 

 culmen (exp.) 115, wing 482, tail 250, tarsus 73. 



Immature, Nest, Egg, and Breeding -season. Unknown. 



Distribution and forms. Not at all well known, found at sea in the southern 

 Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and about southern Australian seas. Two forms named : 

 P. f. fusca (Hilsenberg) from the former and P. f. campbelli Mathews from the latter, 

 differing notably in its smaller size throughout. Nichols and Murphy contrasted 

 Mathews 's measurements with their own ; but we would point out that their 

 method of measuring is unknown to us and we cannot reconcile any of their figures 

 with our own data. 



Phcebetria palpebrata. LIGHT-MANTLED SOOTY ALBATROSS. 



Diomedea palpebrata Forster, Mem. Math. Phys. (Paris), Vol. X., p. 571, 1785 : " 47 South 

 Lat." = 64S. 38E., i.e., due south of Prince Edward and Marion Islands. 



Mathews, Vol. II., pt. 3, pi. 101, Sept. 20th, 1912. 



Phcebetria palpebrata huttoni Mathews, Birds Austr., Vol. II.. pt. 3, p 297, Sept. 20th, 1912 : 

 New Zealand Seas. 



DISTRIBUTION. ?? South Australian Seas. Records by sight, but no skins. 



Adult male. Mantle pale ash-grey, with lighter edges to some of the feathers ; 

 wings, scapulars, and upper tail -coverts dark greyish -brown ; primary-quills 

 blackish-brown on the outer webs and at the tips, with white shafts for the greater 

 part of their length, becoming black at the tips, the inner webs somewhat paler ; 

 tail blackish -brown, the shafts white ; head, sides of face and throat sooty-black ; 

 under-surface ashy-brown, somewhat darker on the lower throat and under tail- 

 co verts ; axillaries slightly darker than the under-surface of the body ; under 

 wing-coverts pale brown with dark shaft-lines ; the short feathers encircling the 

 eye have the frontal portion black, and the hinder part white ; bill black, groove 

 on mandible blue ; iris hazel ; tarsi and feet pink. Total length 820 mm. ; culmen 

 114, wing 525, tail 228, tarsus 78. 



Adult female. Similar to the adult male. 



Nestling. Covered entirely with pale ashy-grey down. 



Nest. Placed in crevices in the rock. 



Egg. Clutch, one ; whitish, round the larger end covered with very tiny spots 

 of reddish which merge together at the apex ; axis 103 mm., diameter 66. (Collected 

 November 4th, 1894.) 



Breeding-season. November to February. (Macquarie and Campbell Islands.) 



Distribution and forms. Round the Sub-antarctic Circle. Nichols and Murphy 

 (Auk, Vol. XXXI., p. 526, Oct. 1914) have recently reviewed these birds, admitting 

 four forms : P. p. palpebrata (Forster) from Kerguelen Island, and probably also- 

 Crozets, Prince Edward Island, etc. ; P. p. huttoni Mathews, from Australian seas 

 and New Zealand, breeding on the New Zealand Sub-antarctic Islands, paler than 

 preceding, and smaller in all measurements than next ; P. p. antarctica Mathews 

 from South Georgia, with larger heavier bill, and paler than last named ; and 

 P. p auduboni Nichols and Murphy from west coast of America, on account of 



